Ten Catalan towns celebrate share of Three Kings Day lottery  

If the excitement of the Three Wise Men delivering gifts wasn't enough, one the biggest lottery draws of the year in Spain fell kindly for Catalonia on Saturday. 

The first prize was ticket number 94974, with winning tickets sold throughout Spain, including in ten Catalan towns and cities: Corbera de Llobregat, where ten series of the first prize were sold, Barcelona, Porqueres, Mataró, Sabadell, Montgat, Sant Vicenç dels Horts, Anglès, La Jonquera and Corbera d'Ebre. 

Tickets are normally sold in tenths (dècims in Catalan or décimos in Spanish), with the top prize worth €200,000 for every tenth of a ticket. 

The second prize, valued at €75,000 per tenth, was 89634, and all tickets were sold in Móstoles (Madrid), while third prize, €25,000 per tenth, was 94974 and was sold in various places across Spain. In Catalonia, a share of the third prize tickets were bought in Tàrrega, Montgat, Terrassa and Cornellà de Llobregat. 

The total prizemoney for the Three Kings Day lottery this year was €770m, up from €700m last year. 

"I thought they were pulling my leg" 

The manager of the Corbera de Llobregat lottery store that sold winning tickets worth almost €20m, Gustau Gómez, did not believe the news on Saturday morning. 

"We were enjoying the presents as a family when people started calling to tell me, but I thought they were pulling my leg," he told the big media presence who had traveled to the town just outside Barcelona. 

"Until I started receiving more and more calls and I thought it couldn't be that everyone wanted to play a joke on me," he added, visibly pleased. 

Catalonia spends €93.9m 

Catalonia increased its total spending on the 2024 Three Kings Day lottery by 4.51%, to €93.9m. Spending per inhabitant reached €12.24, compared to €11.54 in 2023. Spending per person in Catalonia was one of the lowest in Spain. 

Across Spain, total spending rose 5.45% to €836.4m.